WHAT must it feel like, to be a fashion designer with a guillotine blade hanging over your head?

That question has been floating uncomfortably around the rafters of fashion for some time now, especially here in Paris, where the intense pressure on designers at the top echelon of luxury houses to produce clothes that are ever more exciting — yet commercial — each season has collided with a mounting sense of runway ennui.

In the wake of John Galliano’s very public meltdown last week, and then the mysterious absence of Christophe Decarnin at his Balmain show on Thursday, you begin to wonder just what is happening to the designer psyche. Then, in the next moment, you are entertaining how Mr. Galliano’s dismissal from Dior will affect the next round of rumors about who’s going where and who’s about to be fired next.

Did you, by way of an example, hear about Stefano Pilati?

It was less than two weeks ago that Mr. Pilati’s fate at Yves Saint Laurent, where he has worked for more than a decade and where he replaced Tom Ford as creative director in 2004, seemed all but sealed. That is, if you read the many fashion blogs that were reporting his imminent, involuntary departure. Never mind that those rumors have circulated periodically for years, or that PPR, the French conglomerate that owns Gucci Group and YSL, had just made an unusual show of support for the designer by praising him during a presentation of the company’s financial results. Yves Saint Laurent had posted its first significant profit, about $15 million, after nearly a decade of stunning losses, a turnaround in a difficult economy for which François-Henri Pinault, the chairman of PPR, credited Mr. Pilati as having played a key role.

You might think the news that customers are actually buying his clothes would make things a little easier for the designer, a tall, emotive Italian who casts a striking and charismatic figure in the Parisian fashion scene and yet remains somewhat at a distance from its exclusive social epicenter. One reason for the constant sniping is the fact that Yves Saint Laurent is one of the most storied couturiers of the 20th century, whose legacy is as much a symbol of French national pride as is the tricolor. As its designer, Mr. Pilati faces sometimes insurmountable prejudices and obstacles.

Another reason is Mr. Pilati’s own stated sense of bringing honesty and integrity to his approach to the work, which is something not everyone seems willing to see.

“You know, it affects me,” he said on Tuesday in the Yves Saint Laurent atelier on the Avenue George V, where he was working on the fall collection that is to be shown on Monday.

Mr. Pilati, 45, who was wearing a gauzy white T-shirt with sleeves so long that they rolled back half a foot over the cuffs of a tailored blazer, seemed unusually calm, days before a show. Though he is known to complain, and, as he said, “complain a lot,” it is a sign of his growing maturity that he can respond to the rumors openly.

“I am a creative person, so I am very vulnerable by nature,” he said. “When you have the idea for a collection, you are really happy, and when you don’t have the idea, you are upset and down and grumpy. That is your daily life. And that vulnerability ... it can also be fragility.”

In a way, the turmoil that has beset the Paris collections reflects the impression that luxury houses, driven by the recession, have begun to diminish the creative leeway once granted to a star designer.

“They were all placed on pedestals,” said Debi Greenberg, the owner of Louis Boston. “In some way, reality had to hit, and here is the reality: It is a very stressful time.”

Mr. Pilati said that he has, at moments when he might have already had doubts about himself or his ideas, wondered if the rumors might even be true. Reports of his departure first appeared in trade publications in 2007, around the time he was renewing his current contract, then again last April, when Mr. Pilati did not attend an opera gala in New York that was sponsored by Yves Saint Laurent, and for a third time in October just before his last show.

They have intensified in recent weeks, following the announcement last month that Valérie Hermann, the president of the label, was leaving to join Reed Krakoff in New York, prompting Saint Laurent to issue a denial that Mr. Pilati was on the outs. Mr. Pinault said on Thursday that Mr. Pilati’s collaboration with the incoming chief executive, Paul Deneve, “will certainly be a phase of continued growth and progress for this historic brand.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Pilati said that the reports have been an infuriating distraction because he thought that they were driven by jealous colleagues or those who were seeking to unseat him.

“I don’t let it go,” he said. “What is it about? I should be here, thinking about how beautiful my job is, and come to the office every day and work with colors and fabrics. But no, you have something that undermines you.”

MR. PILATI had once toyed with quitting fashion and going back to school. Growing up in Milan, he dropped out as a 17-year-old to apprentice with Nino Cerruti. He became skilled in textiles and later worked with Giorgio Armani and Miuccia Prada. In 2000, Mr. Ford recruited him during his takeover of YSL.

In total, Mr. Pilati has been a designer for nearly 30 years, during which time he has had highs and lows, wrestled with drug abuse, and constantly questioned his place in fashion and whether the pressures are worth it.

“I have worked and worked and worked hard again,” he said. “I have been a monk here.” But there is one thing he said in the interview, when describing his decision to stay at YSL in 2004, when Mr. Ford abruptly left the company, that suggests he truly believes in his ability to bring the brand forward, when others have not.

“I wasn’t happy about the idea that my work could be associated with failure,” he said.

Back then, the company was in terrible shape, estimated to be losing around $100 million annually. Mr. Pilati, working with Ms. Hermann, said he sought to address one issue at a time, such as that it had no serious accessories business and its men’s wear line was a mess. The women’s collections were only one of his priorities, and while some of them were described as masterful, others fell flat.

Last October, as Mr. Pilati was preparing his spring collection, those doubts were multiplied as many designers, moved by a recent YSL retrospective, were paying homage to the style of Yves Saint Laurent, who died in 2008. Mr. Pilati’s collection, which emphasized sporty daywear and twisting ruffles on peasant skirts — a far cry from some of the more daring pieces like the strawberry embroidered dresses of 2009, the before-their-time tulip skirts of 2005 — was generally well received, and in some respects marked a pivotal shift in Mr. Pilati’s approach at the house.

There is already a waiting list for many items from the spring collection at Net-a-Porter, the online retailer, said Natalie Massenet, its founder, who has been selling the Yves Saint Laurent collection for three years.

“From the very first season,” she said, “he had an instinctual interpretation of the Saint Laurent aesthetic in an absolutely modern way, and he has the discipline to stay within the brand guidelines, but, creatively, to innovate.”

Speaking of how he has changed since his arrival, Mr. Pilati said, “I am more surprised creatively, because I almost have gone back to something that, at the beginning, I didn’t want to do, which is including a more readable way of looking at the past of Saint Laurent.”

“For many years, I didn’t even want to go there, maybe because Mr. Saint Laurent was still alive,” he said. “Maybe now I am more free and I do not feel like I am doing anything bad, or disrespectful.”

ALONG the walls of a fourth-floor office in the YSL building, the plans for the fall collection are neatly organized with sketches in the order in which each look will be presented on Monday, coordinated with fabric swatches and images from the archives that show how the arc of history reaches the contemporary plane of Mr. Pilati’s studio.

His process is somewhat counterintuitive in that Mr. Pilati first conceives an idea for a collection and then dives into the archives to find examples from Saint Laurent’s work that back up his own. Although the actual fabrics for the collection were selected months before, Mr. Pilati creates versions of each design using lightweight gray flannel wool, which makes it easier for him to detect flaws, before final samples are completed.

A long table was covered with fabrics: a thick Japanese tweed, glen plaids of varying dimensions, treated furs, wool woven with ostrich feathers, black patent leather and white mousseline. Mr. Pilati said he could see the entire run of the show in his head, from daywear to the evening dresses, just by looking at the assembled fabrics.

His pre-fall collection, shown in January, included many references to shapes seen in the Saint Laurent 1977 Opium couture collection, which Mr. Pilati said he now wanted to push forward for the fall runway show. One new idea he started with was incorporating the Prince of Wales check, so he returned to the archives to see what else Saint Laurent had done in similar patterns.

“And he has done it, because there is no one thing that he has not done,” Mr. Pilati said.

Of the dozens of images posted to a wall, one, from Saint Laurent’s fall 1969 collection, showed a model wearing a coat that appears to be embraced from behind with the skin of a lynx, whose arm reaches around her shoulder. Mr. Pilati’s updated version includes a streak of fur, treated to look like a Prince of Wales check, running down the back of a dress, almost like a tail.

“It is not a replica, but it relates to something that already exists,” he said.

In his earlier work, you might not have been able to see that connection to the past so obviously, and this is the future of Yves Saint Laurent as Mr. Pilati sees it. Saint Laurent himself paid homage to other designers in his work, including Schiaparelli, Chanel, Dior and Ossie Clark. Certainly, other designers continue to pay homage to Saint Laurent. But it is Mr. Pilati who seems most clearly motivated to create an identity for the house that is grounded in his own image.

Sometime in the weeks after this collection, Mr. Pilati will turn his attention to his future at the house. He said his current contract runs through March 2012, but he will likely open discussions about a new contract this spring. And he wants to stay.

I absolutely love Pilati's work and the beauty of the clothing he makes. I think he and his aesthetic are perfect for YSL, and I really hope he stays there. However, it does seem like he's going somewhere. I hope whatever ends up happening, it turns out well for his career.

The stress of having a prestigious house over you head must me epic, my aunt used to tell me stories of McQueen going crazy backstage during his Givenchy showings, and how crazy john would speak b4 his collections were shown, Its no wonder they used to all ** *****. I really hope Pilati stays at YSL, his work has been brilliant with a 1 or 2 bad collections, but nothing worth firing. I don't know the books but if 15million coins sounds like a keeper to me

one wonders if ALL the houses are just going to re-shuffle. if they all do it at once, then it minimizes the effect of just one designer changing at one house. it's not like ALL of the clientel who shops these luxury houses will ALL stop at once.

YVES SAINT LAURENT insiders suggest there will be an official statement later today regarding rumours that Raf Simons is to take over at Yves Saint Laurent.

The International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes reported in her Jil Sander show review yesterday that Simons was set to replace Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent, sparking a rumour frenzy on Twitter.

"If Raf Simons ultimately takes over the helm at Yves Saint Laurent - as those familiar with the situation in Paris suggest - the designer will have found a sweet spot for his meticulous modernism," said Menkes. "Although the designer was traveling back to his native Belgium and could not be reached for comment on the subject of YSL, he certainly has earned an audition for that position."

This isn't the first time Pilati has been rumoured to be leaving the French fashion house, only last season a tweet from the Kenzo press office suggested Hedi Slimane was filling his role as creative director. Yves Saint Laurent quickly rubbished the rumours via Twitter.

"From YSL HQ in Paris... Pilati busy working on the next collection," it said in March. "All the rumors unfounded - he is here to stay."

And the rumour mill keeps churning I've actually like Stefano's last few collections but I wish someone could bring back a sense of romance and frippery to YSL. I know we won't get that with Raf though

I guess we'll find out later today then?

__________________
‎"For something to be beautiful it doesn't have to be pretty." - Rei Kawakubo

I don't mind Stefano, and am kinda happy with the status quo. Raf's great, and I love Jil Sander, but I agree he won't bring romance and frippery to YSL (I don't think he'll be bad, though). The other question would be who's going to replace Raf? I assume he'd leave Jil Sander anyway.

Suzy Menkes: Sources Say Raf Simons To Take Over At Yves Saint Laurent

PARIS, France — We usually leave ‘breaking news’ stories to the wire services and Twitter, and don’t like to propagate unsubstantiated rumours, but sometimes the news is so big, and the source of the rumour is so credible, that it warrants immediate comment and analysis from BoF.
In her rapturous review of Raf Simons’ Spring/Summer 2012 collection for Jil Sander, the highly-respected fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, Suzy Menkes, dropped the bombshell news that unnamed sources in Paris say that Raf Simons will replace Stefano Pilati as Creative Director of storied couture house, Yves Saint Laurent. When Menkes’ IHT colleague Jessica Michault announced the news on Twitter, the fashion Twittersphere was sent into overdrive.
Menkes seems supportive of the supposed move, saying that “if Raf Simons ultimately takes over the helm at Yves Saint Laurent — as those familiar with the situation in Paris suggest — the designer will have found a sweet spot for his meticulous modernism.”
But there was no mention of the timing of the supposed transition, and while Ms. Menkes’ sources are amongst the best in the industry and her reporting is of the highest integrity, the news is yet to be officially confirmed by any of the parties concerned, so this news must still be treated as conjecture.
That said, Mr. Pilati’s future at YSL is said to have been rocky for several seasons now. He has been regularly dogged by rumours that other designers were set to replace him. Only last season, a casual tweet from Kenzo’s Twitter account spawned rumours that Hedi Slimane would replace Pilati, rumours that were only snuffed out when YSL’s official Twitter account wrote: “From YSL HQ in Paris… Pilati busy working on the next collection. All the rumors unfounded – he is here to stay.”
There is more reason to believe the rumours are true this time around. Up until now, there has been no such Twitter rebuttal from YSL. And, Ms. Menkes’ news was published in the International Herald Tribune and on The New York Times website, organisations which operate under strict journalistic codes. While still not a 100 percent guarantee, this holds much more weight in our books than a rogue tweet from a competing brand.
As for Mr. Simons, Ms. Menkes says he couldn’t be reached for comment. But, speaking to Tim Blanks for his review on Style.com, Mr. Simons did say that his Spring/Summer 2012 collection “is the last in his couture trilogy” for Jil Sander, leaving Mr. Blanks to postulate about Mr. Simons’ next chapter for the brand.
Will there really be another Raf Simons collection for Jil Sander? Or, could YSL Couture be next? Watch this space.businessoffashion.com

__________________"he waited for other people to understand what he was doing, instead of doing what they wanted.Balenciaga never compromised."